Lord adds: "for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake" (chap. ix. 15, 16). It was a large sphere the Lord meant the light of His glory and love to be proclaimed in, and He chose a special vessel for the work. 'Tis a new form of truth which Saul preached. "And straightway he preached Christ that He is Son of God" (ver. 20). "All that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is very Christ" (ver. 22, 23). Whatever heedless man may think, the powers of darkness were in this beaten back and discomfited for a time, and angels in heaven owned the wondrousness of their Lord's unsearchable ways while they looked on, and learnt about Him in His dealings as to the Church. And what comfort of love and encouragement was there to the Damascene Christians in that day, in all this. The Lord was with Saul; and the hearts of Jerusalem converts got strength and comfort-" Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied" (ver. 31), and cannot we see the brightness of Heaven's light and love as it thus shines out and down upon the earth where we still are?

In reading Acts xxi. we may well be struck with the unheeded admonitions which were given to Paul, at Tyre-certain disciples said to Paul through the Spirit, "that he should not go up to Jerusalem" (ver. 4). Again (ver. 10, 11), there was a certain prophet, named Agabus, "and when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said: Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." The apostle of the uncircumcision must live among the Gentiles,-God's free man, or God's bondsman. "And

when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem " (ver. 12). Arrived there, he found first the state of James and all the elders there and of the Jerusalem brotherhood (ver. 18-25). The currents were too strong for him, and in the midst of the conflict, Paula has to admit: "I saw Him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me" (xxii. 18), and after Paul had argued the point with the Lord-" Depart; for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (ver. 21).

It is to be noticed that the uproar commenced in the temple with certain Jews, which were of Asia. These appealed to the men of Israel against Paul, then in the temple about his vow:

"This is the man, that teacheth all everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place," that was his first offence; his second was-" and further brought Greeks (Grecians not Hellenistic Jews) also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place" (ver. 28).

Carried off by the chief captain and soldiers to the castle, he is there permitted to speak unto the people from the stairs.

What strikes one, first of all, in reading this his testimony, is the way in which on one side Paul is himself called in question, his life threatened, for the truth's sake, as his Master's life had been taken. In life Paul was now one with that Master; yea Christ was his life, his life hid with Christ in God. If so be we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together with Him. He

All things working together for good, may be true even there where a man cannot say, That which I did was what Christ alone did.

With the Lord both were true. All worked for good, but He also was perfect in His steps and work.

Paul appears to me when he argued (ver. 19 and 20) "and I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: and when the blood of thy martyr, Stephen, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him "-to have trusted to the natural weight of the evidence he had to present to the Jewish mind in his own conversion; and to have in measure overlooked the counsel of God and the power of the Holy Ghost.

had too passed through experiences in nature which fitted him to know and to understand thoroughly the position and feelings of the Jews to whom he had to speak. If Jesus spoke from heaven to Saul as seeing and divinely reading all the secrets of Saul's heart and life to him, Paul could speak to the Jews as one that knew by his own past experience (already judged by him), whereabouts they were to whom he spake. Peter could not have done this. Peter, after he knew the Lord, cursed and swore and denied that he knew Christ, ere he could be trusted to stand forward and charge on Israel that "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts ii. 22, 23). The Lord upon earth, Peter, having known Him, had denied, whom they, not knowing, had slain. Paul, awakened to Jesus in heaven, got a thorn in the flesh, messenger of Satan to buffet him as his schooling as to himself. I cannot read Peter's life and not see his need of the lesson he learnt: perhaps Paul's need of his lesson may be seen too.

But again, Paul, one in life with Christ in glory, and as servant an ambassador for Christ, spake to his Hebrew brethren just that which Jesus had shown and said to himself. Mark this well. And mark too why his witness was that which he had seen and heard. Not a long argument and reasoning built upon it-but the facts formed his testimony. He had seen and heard something, and what he had seen and heard that was what he put forward.

First, he introduces himself: I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous. toward God, as ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders":

What a magnificent opportunity of confessing Christ was his! The high priest, the elders who had been identified with

from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished (ver. 3-6). Then secondly, comes his report of what he saw and heard.

Ver. 6. That it was "at noon" that the light shined, is noticed for the first time here.

Ver. 8. Our text gives here, "I am Jesus of Nazareth," the words "of Nazareth are not named in chap. ix. It is written in chap. ix. 7, "The men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." And in

Chap. xxii. 9, " But they heard not the voice of him that spake to me." That is, they heard the sound of a voice; but not the words of Him that spake.

Chap. ix. 3, "Suddenly there shined about him a light from heaven."

Chap. xxii. 11, "And when I could not see for the glory of that light," etc.

Paul then adds, that when Ananias (a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews) came to him, he said:

"The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth" (ver. 15). "For

thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (ver. 16).

The revelation was made to him not only for his own salvation's sake, but also that he might witness unto all men-be His witness, who had shown Himself and who had spoken to him,-of what he had seen and heard.

And, thirdly, came that which to the earthly mind of the Jew spoilt all; that which, on the other hand, told out how the Lord knew Israel and would not close up His own bowels of mercies because Israel would reject, but contrariwise would take a larger and a wider range in which to make known His presence in glory, beauty, power and majesty in heaven; and how His voice there

his mission to extirpate the Nazarenes, all (present or) at hand to be referred to, as, in the next chapter, to persecute him.

would speak to poor sinners down here about Himself and make poor sinners to know how He was their Saviour, and to learn the contrasts too between God and man; Heaven and earth; righteousness and mercy; deserved reward and free grace; the life of God, eternal life, and the life of man, perishing and all spoiled. And mark it, too, His herald was to be a Jew. The Lord of heaven and earth would show His rights over all on earth. Had He not the right to send a Hebrew of the Hebrews, one of the straitest sect of the Pharisees as His messenger sent in the foolishness of God to the wise Gentile in all his liberty-loving contempt of the narrow-minded Jew. The Jews, looking at Paul in his testimony to them according to their own pride, doubtless saw in him nothing but a renegade to the national glory, an enemy to their proud claims: had they looked at him according to that which was in God, they would surely have said, What grace in Messiah, when we had rejected Himself, to send one of our own people, one of His people according to the flesh to the Gentiles! Thus still showing His thoughts of and love for Israel. Paul must become the offscouring of all things, yet be that part of the channel of testimony which was nearest to the Lord. Taught too by the Lord Himself in heaven-thoroughly taught-in spirit and in truth he loved the Head of the Nazarenes, whom he had seen and heard in heaven.

"And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; and I saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles" (ver. 17-21).

Poor but most blessed Paul! Thy testimony is delivered to Israel. Thy Lord knew better than didst thou; His word, not thine, must stand as to the results also of the testimony.